The warning by Lars Klingbeil, general secretary of the Social Democratic Party, comes less than two weeks before Chancellor Angela Merkel's squabbling coalition is due to sign off on the blueprint. An initial draft released earlier this year fell short of expectations, Klingbeil wrote in a commentary for the Tagesspiegel newspaper: "We really need a breakout. We have to stop taking it easy." Policy makers in Europe's largest economy have been late to realize that its industrial export model is vulnerable at a time of rapid digitalization and growing trade frictions. Car makers such as Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE) or Daimler are vulnerable to competition from asset-light companies, such as ride-hailing platform Uber, that use artificial intelligence - essentially computers that can be trained to solve problems - to crunch data and run digital services.